Christie A Firm ‘No’

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been saying for months he would not run for president in 2012, something he made even more crystal clear at a press conference today.

Christie said he “felt an obligation to seriously consider what people were asking me to do,” but that “now is not my time.”

This squares with what most close observers of New Jersey politics have been saying: Christie’s been surprisingly successful at the state level, and though it’s never easy winning as a Republican in the Garden State, he has a decent shot at reelection in two years.

“He peaks out about 53, 54 percent approval,” said Ben Dworkin, director of The Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “His negative ratings have increased pretty steadily since he got elected. This is to be expected in a state where he has made some significant decisions. He has not shied away from controversy. That’s not in his nature. But it will be a tough reelection. New Jersey is still a state with a 700,000 voter registration advantage for Democrats.”